Amy Winehouse's Cause of Death Revealed

Amy Winehouse’s Cause of Death Revealed

Soul singer Amy Winehouse’s sudden death in July was caused by alcohol poisoning. Tragic news indeed.

-Lucia Peters

The verdict is finally in on the cause of Amy Winehouse’s sudden death at the end of July: It was alcohol. According to the Huffington Post, Coroner Suzanne Greenaway ruled today that the amount of alcohol in Amy’s blood—more than five times the British drunk driving limit—was lethal. This, together with the collection of empty vodka bottles found in the singer’s room, caused Greenaway to give a verdict of “death by misadventure.”

Although Amy had refrained from drinking for most of July, her doctor, Dr. Christina Romete, reported that Amy had resumed drinking in the days prior to her death. Although, as Dr. Romete pointed out, Amy had “made tremendous efforts over the years,” the real tragedy is that after she gave up hard drugs in 2008, alcohol became her primary problem. She was only 27 when she died.

Amy’s family released a statement after the verdict was reached: “It is some relief to finally find out what happened to Amy,” they said, adding “The court heard that Amy was battling hard to conquer her problems with alcohol and it is a source of great pain to us that she could not win in time.” The statement went on to say, “It underlines how important our work with the Amy Winehouse Foundation is to us, to help as many young people and children as we can in her name.” The Amy Winehouse Foundation was started by Amy’s family in the wake of her death to provide help to those who are battling with substance abuse problems. Her family also thanked the community for the outpouring of support: “It means a lot to us and from the overwhelming messages of support we have had since Amy died, we know she meant a great deal to people all over the world. We want to thank everyone for that and for their continuing enthusiasm for the Foundation.”

As Amy’s family said, at least now we know what happened. That doesn’t stop it from being any less tragic, though. Thinking of what Amy accomplished in such a short amount of time, it’s saddening to think that she’ll never get the chance to reach her full potential.